Vent chamber for storage batteries



Sept. 17, 1940. I WELL 2,214,803

vnm' cnAusEa Fqn swomea BATTERIES Filed April-'8, 1939 INVENIOR. lam/r0 5/4 5415 ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 17, 1940' v UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE vnN'r Gunman FOR s'ronAGE 1 nsmmns Leland 1:. Wells, Cleveland Heights, om, assigna or to Willard Storage Battery Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of West Virginia 'Application April s, 1938, Serial No. 200,941 1 Claim. 1 (01136-177) This invention relates to vent chambers for storage batteries and has for-its chief object to provide a novel form of baflle or diaphragm for use in a-battery vent chamber, such as the cavity I or chamber in the vent plug,

More particularly it is the aim of the invention J to provide a baille or diaphragm which is more efllcient than those heretofore employed in prev venting or reducing the loss of electrolyte in the is form of spray or gas bubbles during the periods which will be described in-the specification and set forth in the appended claim. J I In the accompanying sheet of drawings:

is Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a battery vent plug equipped with baflles formed in accordance with my invention, this view and the subsequent views showing the vent plug and the parts thereof on an enlarged scale;

a Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the vent Fig, 3 is a transverse sectional view substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; 1

Fig. 4 is a similar view showing a slight modiflcation;

Fig. 51s anedgevlewandFlg. fiisaplanview of the flat disk which is utilized in forming one of the baflles; and 1 Fig. 7 is, a sectional view of the same showing the form to which the disk is pressed when inserted in the body of the vent plug from the bottom thereof.

At the present time the "under-the-hood" installation of storage batteries by automobile 5 manufacturers is becoming continuously more popular and this location of the battery makes it vitally important that the loss of electrolyte through the vent plug be prevented if possible and calls for special and improved venting means 50 to attain this end. The construction described below and constituting the subject of this invention answers this requirement very eflectively without adding to the cost of the vent plug and therefore oi'the battery, it being understood that oneoftheseventplugswillbeemployedwith quickly and without any con- I each cell of the battery and is designed .to be screwed into the interiorly threaded flanged opening of the cover in the customary manner.

The vent plug comprises an inverted cupshaped body It! which can be formed by a simple 5 molding operation from any of the materials customarily employed, such as hard rubber or other suitable plastic composition. Preferably the body III has an integral top portion II which is closed except for'a vent opening'li. As the body Ill is 10 molded, it is'provided with an inner cavity l3 which extends from the top H to the open bottom ofthe body without any integral. transverse baflle walls which would add to the molding cost, the cavity being progressively larger from the top is I l to its lower open end. The lower exterior part of the body is provided with a thread It by which the vent plug may be screwed into the interiorly threaded opening in the, cover and, as here shown, above the threaded portion is a flange I5 m designed to engage a'suitable gasket placed on, the cover around the vent plug opening thereof. However, the details of the plug, particularly so far as its external shape is concerned, are immaterial to the present invention.

In the construction illustrated, the plug is provided on its interior with two vertically spaced novelly formed transverse baflies it which divide the inner chamber or cavity l3 into three separate compartments. While I am aware of'the fact that it is not new with me to provide a baflle on the interior of a vent plug, in view of the novel construction of my baille I regard it within apex) of the cone or" at the lower central part thereof for venting purposes and for the return v of the electrolyte condensed from spray or otherwise caught in the compartment above the baille. The baflles are held frictionally in place by having their peripheral portions engaged in annular grooves I8 molded or otherwise formed in the mterior wall of the cavity l3.

These baiiles are formed of suitable flexible material such as hard rubber or other equivalent durable material inert to the electrolyte. Initially the bailles are in the iorm of flat disks' H! which may be cut or stamped from flat sheeted material such as vulcanized sheet rubber. The flat disk It is circular in outline, but, in accordance with the present invention, to enable it to be given the desired conical pitch and to facilitate its insertion into the vent plug body, the disk, when out from the sheet material, is provided with asector-shaped notch 20 extending from the periphery to the central opening [1, as clearly shown in Fig. 6. With this construction the disk 19 can be readily bent into the shape of the conical baflle l6 having a decided pitch as illustrated, without danger of breakage of the disk, and when bent or deflected to this form they can be quickly' and easily slid into the cavity 13 of the vent plug and allowed to snap into the annular grooves l8 and are thus permanently retained in position by the frictional and interlocking engagement with the wall of the cavity. The upper baflie, being held in a narrower part of the cavity than the lower balile, is formed from a flat disk l9 cut on a slightly smaller radius than the disk from which the lower battle is formed.' The sizes of the disks I9 are so selected with respect to the diameters of the grooves l8 that when the baflies are in place the sector-shaped notches 20 are preferably closed, as indicated in Figs. 2, 3, and '7, each disk being of such size with reference to the groove l8 which is to receive its periphery that when it snaps into the groove l8 it does not expand or flatten sufliciently to partly open the sector. This is the preferred construction as it then confines whatever venting occurs to the central opening I! provided for this purpose. However, I do not regard this feature as absolutely essential to the invention for a slight' opening of the sector-shaped notch, as indicated at 20a in Fig. 4, would not destroy the utility of the device even though it would render it less effective than is the case when the notch is closed when the bafiie is in place, as shown in Fig. 3.

It will be understood, of course, that as the spray or gas bubbles pass up into the lower part of the cavity l3 some of it will contact with the bottom of the lower baflie I6 and become condensed and eventually drop back into the battery. Part of it will pass through the opening I! in the lower baflie and will contact with the lower surface of the upper bafile l6 or on the walls of the middle chamber or compartment where it will condense and drop back onto the lower baflle l5 and then pass through the central opening ll thereof into the battery. If any passes through the opening ll of the upper baflle, it will entirely or substantially entirely condense against the walls of the upper chamber of the cavity and be condensed and eventually run down onto the upper baifle' l6 and then find its way back into the battery.

While I have shown the preferred construction, I do not desire to be confined to the precise details shown but aim in my claim to cover all modifications which do not involve-a departure from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

A device for use as a baflle in a ventchamber,

of a storage battery comprising a thin flat disk of flexible material inert to battery electrolyte, said disk having a central opening and a slot extending from said opening to the periphery of the disk and gradually widening from its inner toits outer end, said disk being adapted to be flexed to conical shape and to be retained in the cavity of the chamber as an inverted cone with the edge of the disk engaging the wall of the cavity, the diameter of the disk and the angle of the notch being so selected with respect to the diameter of that part of the cavity which the edge of the disk is adapted to engage that when the disk is in place in the chamber the notch of the disk is substantially closed or entirely closed by the engagement of the two edges of the notch.

LELANDEWELLS. 

